The Berthoud Bugle: A Heart of Thanksgiving
- berthoudfoursquare
- Nov 1
- 8 min read
Volume 2025: Edition 43
Food for thought: Thanksgiving
Hello everyone. We thank you for your love and support for our Church and our family. Please continue to pray for our church, our pastor and his leadership, and our church leaders that we may continue to share the word of God. We are so blessed and grateful for the growth in our church, the ability to share our messages and newsletters with our viewers, and the strengthening of our church family and viewers as a congregation and as individuals. We strive to bring encouragement and connection through this newsletter, which we will continue to post every 1st of the month. So, we hope you will continue to learn and grow in God's word with us.
"You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.
You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it."
(Psalm 139:3-6)
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."
(John 3:16-17)
This month is the month of Thanksgiving. The month where our nation sets aside a day to give thanks for what has been given to us and the sacrifices made for our country to thrive and survive in its infancy. A nation built on the values of our creator and who gives freely out of love and mercy for all mankind.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be My son"
(Revelation 21:6-7)
With this being the month of the Thanksgiving holiday, I thought I would give thanks for all God has done, but in doing so, it made me think about the greatness of God and all His wonders.
Have you ever sat back and thought about how amazing God’s Love really is?
How our Creator gave us everything and all He asked in return was to follow Him?
To Give back the love He put in each and every one of us, to love one another, but most importantly:
"You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."
(Deuteronomy 6:5)
When I pondered the idea of how great God’s love was, and the thought of how merciful and loving our God is, the first thing that came to mind for me wasn’t how great God is, but how disobedient I have been and how I have sinned and failed. And the many sins I’ve committed over a lifetime. How Our Creator sent His Son as the ultimate sacrifice for me.
I tried to keep this idea that was running through my head simple, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized the magnitude of all His mercy. How really amazing is our God?
My mind took me to the beginning of when God made Adam, then Eve. How from the moment man fell to now, how sin has been on this earth from that moment on, and how our Savior chose to redeem us from that sin. He was our ransom. A ransom for sin for each and every person who has ever been.
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
(Romans 6:23)
When I think about it in that context, my mind cannot comprehend it; Because right now on earth, there are an estimated 8.1 billion people. Now think about just how many sins you think you might commit in just 1 hour in a day and then think about it for the entire day. Now multiply that by 8.1 billion people on earth, for just one day. Now let your mind go even deeper and times that for a year and then times that by the average life span for mankind (which is 75 years old) for 8.1 billion people. Now let your mind wander even further, and think if there is an estimated number for how many people are living in our lifetime, how many people before us have there been in the history of mankind?
Google estimates that there have been around 117-120 billion people that have ever lived but that is obviously an estimation. Google also estimates it could be fewer than 100 billion as well.
Now let’s say that there have been 120 billion people from the beginning until today. Now imagine somehow, we could estimate an average (which we can’t) a person sins on a daily basis and times that by the average life span of a human being and times that by 120 billion people…
It would be a number that is unimaginable.
Our God is so amazing! No words can express how wonderful He is. That is why I started off with this passage:
"Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it."
(Psalm 139:6)
And King David said it best again later in this same writing:
"I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well."
(Psalm 139:14)
Staying on just the thought of how great our God is, How He sent our Savior to the cross to die for all sin, is mind blowing. I can’t even begin to comprehend His love when I think of it in those terms. For Our Lord to suffer for ALL sin, for the billions of lives and the unthinkable number of sins, and our Lord took it all on, is just unimaginable. This is how great Our God is.
I am so thankful for the unlimited amount of Love, mercy, and grace Our Lord has for us. God has and will forgive us for the countless number of failures and sins we commit in our lifetime if we ask Him. But know there will be a day when it all comes to an end if you and I don’t follow His ways.
We must always ask for His mercy and Grace. To always ask for His forgiveness. And to always thank Him with every breath for saving our souls.
I know I could never do enough good in this lifetime to make a dent into the wrongs I have done. Thank God that He doesn’t measure us on what we can accomplish or do, but for what His Son took on for us all.
It is only fitting that when I try to think how great our God is, I get lost for words because to me, it is incomprehensible.
Thank you God the Father, God The Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Thank you for everything that was and is to come.
Thank you.
"Oh, give thanks to the LORD!
Call upon His name;
Make known His deeds among the peoples!
Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him;
Talk of all His wondrous works!
Glory in His holy name;
Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the LORD!
Seek the LORD and His strength;
Seek His face evermore!
Remember His marvelous works which He has done,
His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth,"
(1 Chronicles 16:8-12)
As this newsletter continues to grow and expand, please don’t be afraid to let us know if you are in need of prayer or support. And feel free to share your stories, your testimony, or just a quick question in the comments section below any of our links. We truly want to hear from you and do what we can to help because we are meant to be here to love, encourage, and support one another.
We are grateful to have you with us as readers, church members, and interested guests and we are always open to any suggestions and volunteers for our website, newsletter, and future activities. We hope to see you at our Sunday service and stay tuned for our coming newsletters and updates at church, at bible study, on Facebook, on our YouTube Channel, on the Wix App, and on the website.
Upcoming Events:
Special Prayers:
Thank God for the work He has done on Joy Anderson! She is cancer-free. Pray that the Lord continues to heal her body and watch over her.
Thank God for the healing He has provided for Taylor. Her lungs are free of any inflammation and have improved in the past two years since her last scan. Pray that the Lord continues to heal her body and watch over her.
Continued prayer for the Salazar Family
Pray for Elijah, who is 2 months old and a member of the Neito and Chavez family. May God bless and provide for him and his family in every sense.
Pray for our Newsletter that we can continue to write through the Holy Spirit
Pray for our Pastor and our church that we may be blessed to continue to grow and share the word of God
Weekly Devotional: I Will Strengthen You
Begg, Alistair. Truth for Life- Daily Devotions
Verse of the Week:
"I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High."
(Psalm 9:1-2)
Announcements:
The burrito sale season has come to an end but soon begins our Christmas Season. With that comes our float and Christmas Eve Service. If you would like to volunteer to help with the float or our Christmas Eve service, please let Pastor Stevie know.
There will be no fellowship meeting this month since we will be having our Church Thanksgiving on November 2nd, but if you would like to plan the fellowship luncheon for early December, please sign up on the Church Bulletin board.
Get Involved! There are many ways you can support our church inside and outside of service and help us reach out to our community here in Berthoud. You can help us with the newsletter, plan a fellowship meeting, lead a church activity, help keep the church clean, join in on decorating the church seasonally, design and build church floats in the winter and summer parade, play with and teach the little kids that come in, participate in bible studies, sing or play in worship, lead a bake/ craft sale, make burritos for our Burrito Sales, help maintain the church property, etc.
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” (Colossians 3:23)
We would love to send out the newsletter personally to every member and pray for and celebrate birthdays and anniversaries together as a church family. We are asking all of our members to fill out the member information card either in church or through the mail after they've received their mailed newsletter
We have been printing and mailing our newsletters to our subscribers for the past couple of months. If you haven't received the newsletter physically and would like to join our mailing list, please sign up below.
Questions?
For any questions or suggestions regarding our newsletter please email berthoudfoursquarechurch@gmail.com
Counting our blessings daily and thankful for God’s mercy and Grace. The newsletter has been a great word of encouragement . Continue to be God’s servant 🙏🏽🙏🏽